religious freedom was not yet.

[Sidenote: Ecclesiasticism perpetuated]

As might be expected, numerous modifications of the principles and
usages of the papal church occurred in the change from imperial
control to the state-church system. This diversity took place in the
different countries in accordance either with prevailing conditions
and sentiments or with the whims and caprices of the reigning
sovereigns. While some retained the episcopate, others greatly
modified it or rejected it altogether. In forms of worship, ritual,
and other things numerous changes were also made. But notwithstanding
the diversity in forms of worship and in church polity, in two
respects there was perfect agreement among all the Reformed
churches--two things brought over from the papacy--namely, first,
the idea of a self-perpetuating clerical caste possessing in their
corporate capacity legislative and judicial authority over the
church; and second, the centralization under a human headship of
administrative functions, instead of that local autonomy which
prevailed in the congregations of apostolic times. The doctrine of the
"power of the keys," a power wielded by a clerical corporation with
authority to prescribe the very manner and form of worshiping God and
to require men to comply therewith or else exclude them from gospel
privileges. That doctrine was accepted without question. It was the
same power in principle as that which was wielded so terribly by
Gregory VII in the papal church of the eleventh century.